SUNNY weather is helping to kill the foot and mouth threat which has loomed over South Cheshire since the winter.

SUNNY weather is helping to kill the foot and mouth threat which has loomed over South Cheshire since the winter.

It is a ray of hope for farmers who also heard on Friday that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was lifting the infected area status in and around Congleton and Middlewich which removes restrictions on some 2,700 holdings for the first time since March.

For farmers in the Crewe, Nantwich and Sandbach areas it means freedom to move animals round more farms in Cheshire.

Nantwich farmer Rob Ford, chairman of the South Cheshire branch of the National Farmers' Union, said: 'When you are out of the 'infected area' category you enter into the class of being an 'area at risk.'

'When things have improved even further, you enter into a 'provisionally free area.'

'Most local farmers in the Crewe and Nantwich Borough and Sandbach are now in an area at risk.

'News that Congleton and Middlewich is losing its infected status is a step in the right directions for everyone.

'I know of a farmer who has been unable to move his calves because his land falls just 20 yards within the infected area. He was rapidly running out of space for 800 of them but now they can be moved. From a personal view point I can now move my calves to a farm 60 miles away.

'As the infected areas disappear in other parts of the county and if there are no more cases of foot and mouth, in three months' time we could move from being 'at risk' to provisionally free.'

Mr Ford, of Brindley Hall Farm, Brindley was just 13 when foot and mouth struck at Edleston Farm, Marsh Lane run by his parents. It was just before Christmas in 1967 and all the animals including his pedigree sheep had to be killed.

He added: 'It was a dreadful period ended, many say, by a hot summer in 1968. Ultra-violet rays help kill the virus, so a good hot spell should help see the back of the current crisis if everyone continues to act sensibly and follow precautions.'

Since foot and mouth reared its ugly head in February this year, 15 cases in Cheshire have been recorded.

Four were at Baddiley, near Nantwich, two at Sproston, Holmes Chapel, two at Crowley, Northwich and one at Astbury, Congleton.

Department for the Environment spokesman Stephen Beck said: 'The lifting of the Infected Area Status gives farmers a greater degree of flexibility, although a licence is still required for the movement of all animals from farms.'